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Our indomitable Lien is Kitchen of the Month and she brought us a wonderful not to sweet festive holiday bread. Thank you a BBBBB times over!

BBBBB … Yes, that would be Bread Baking Babe’s Bundt Babas! And these are simple (just go step by step), fun (when is it not fun to poke, poke and poke your food) and visually festive!

Why did these take me so long to actually get to baking? A pan, what pan could I find to bake them in? Yes, I know a loaf pan would have served perfectly well but that’s not really special.

I think most of the Babes like these best small and I would love to try little small ones but who knows where my pans might be packed. Small ones just couldn’t happen this time for me.
I think these are great for the holidays. I baked them twice today and they made welcome little gifts especially as small bundts!

Lots of ways to change these around flavor, fruit jam wise and liquid wise. They are so worth it.

1. Mix all the ingredients for the sponge together in a large bowl (the one you’ll be kneading the dough in). Now sprinkle 180 g bread flour over the sponge, so it is covered and leave to rest for about 1 hour.

2. Now add the salt, ¼ tsp dry yeast, vanilla sugar and eggs. Start to mix this. If using a stand mixer, use the paddle attachment. When it comes together after a few minutes, add the melted (and slightly cooled) butter and keep working it. The dough is a bit batter like, but be sure to get some gluten developed.

3. Place it in the moulds. You can use a loaf tin or a round baking form (I used 3 mini bundt pans), filled about half way up. Cover with plastic and leave to rise until 2-3 cm under the rim of the mould. Mine took about 90 minutes in warm spot.

4. Don’t forget to preheat the oven to 180ºC (350-360ºF).

5. Heat and stir the champagne/Spumante until the sugar dissolves and thickens slightly.

6. Bake for about 45-55 minutes, until golden brown on top. If the bread gets too dark too soon, protect the top with a sheet of tin foil. Check the temperature in the bread with a thermometer, it should be about 93ºC.
Take out of the oven and the tin and place on a deep dish. Poke the bread with a long wooden skewer from top to bottom. Brush the syrup all over it, and get as much as possible inside the bread, so take your time. Collect the syrup from the plate and keep pouring and brushing it, until all in absorbed in the bread.
Now heat the apricot jam in a small pan and let it boil, add a little water if it is too thick. Brush or pour it over the top. You can also opt for a simple sugar glaze. This topping keeps the moisture in.

And no doubt you wonder why my apricot “jam” is so thick … because it’s not jam, I couldn’t go running 20 miles to the nearest store in a foot of snow and ice so I made a “jam” out of the Asti Spumante and dried apricots. Oh, yes it was tasty.
7. The baba is best eaten on the day that it’s baked. But if not, keep in the fridge.

They’re not difficult to make, so have a go and bake these for Christmas or as a delicious in-between for new years eve. Become our Bread Baking Buddy, mix, bake, post and enjoy this recipe and let us know how they turned out. Send you details to Lien (notitievanlien (at) gmail (dot) com) and Lien will send you the Bread Baking Buddy Badge for your efforts to place with our post, if you like. Please have your entries send in before the end of the year.

BBBuddies are not very active lately, but if there are any of course she’ll make a round up. Happy Baking…. and remember you only need a little champagne for this, so you can party with what’s left in the bottle. Happy baking and Happy holidays! 🎄🎄🎄

CUT BEFORE BAKING otherwise the cuts flake the fish and it looks ragged.
I cut the salmon from the end, laid the salmon on one half and then folded it over. Directions below describe a much more complicated process. I think if i had a knife with double shape edges, the tunnel idea would be easy to execute. Short of that, I’ll try either a boneing knife or a fish knife and try for a tunnel.
We really enjoyed this. Without the asparagus stuffed, this is just ordinary excellent salmon. Stuffed it is ordinary excellent salmon with WOW presentation. Well worth the minimal effort if you knead or just desire WOW.

This is the first I’ve heard of Michel Richard who died in 2016. Thomas Keller wrote the forward for this book. Keller has tremendous praise for Michel Richard, so much so that I’m very sorry I didn’t come on to him much sooner. The book is full of doable recipes that are WOW presentations, it also has many recipes that I would never attempt. But I love the book and would rate it 5 starts.

1. For the vinaigrette: Combine the asparagus pieces, water and 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat until the asparagus is tender, about 10 minutes. Let cool; transfer the mixture to a blender and puree until smooth. Place in a bowl and add the mustard, lemon juice, sugar and the remaining olive oil. Season lightly with salt. Whisk until emulsified.

2. For the salmon: Have a large bowl of ice water ready.
I microwaved the asparagus for 3 minutes with 1/2 teaspoon olive oil. When it is ready, place it in the ice water to stop the cooking.
When cooled, remove from the ice water and lay the asparagus on a long piece of heavy plastic wrap. Sprinkle with the chopped tarragon, then season lightly with salt and pepper, rolling the spears to coat evenly with the seasonings.
If you make a tunnel through the salmon: Bundle the spears so that half their tips point one way and half the other, and encase the asparagus in the wrap. Tie one end of the bundle with kitchen twine, and tether it to a table knife along its length.

3. Place the fillet on a work surface and use a long, thin knife to cut a center pocket through to the other cut side. Work slowly and carefully. Essentially, you are cutting a tunnel through the length of the fillet, leaving at least a 1/2-inch wall uncut on each side.

4. Using the tethered table knife as a guide, carefully pull the asparagus bundle through the pocket. Unwind the ends of the plastic, slide the wrap from around the asparagus and discard. The salmon should now look like a stuffed log. Place it on a plate, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to cook.

5. Carefully cut the stuffed salmon log into four equal cross-sectioned pieces. If the log pieces are not tight, tie each one around the circumference with kitchen twine to hold it together. (Be sure to remove the twine after the fish is grilled.) Brush each piece with olive oil and season with salt and pepper to taste.

6. Bake the salmon 30 minutes at 400°.

7. Spoon some of the vinaigrette on the center of each plate. Using a wide spatula, carefully transfer the salmon pieces to individual serving plates. Serve with the remaining vinaigrette on the side.

“Whenever you see a French recipe that begins with the instructions “Faire une boiullie…” you know you have come across a very old recipe because it starts off with a mush made by pouring boiling water over flour.The mush, which will ferment slightly overnight, is used the next day mixed into a bread.The most fascinating recipe I have heard of for pain bouillie is one from the Alpine region of France around the town of Villar-d’Aréne.The bouillie is made with dark rye flour and set aside to rest for seven hours.The porridge is then mixed into a dough, without any yeast, and allowed to rest for another seven hours.When the dough is finally made into loaves, they are placed in an oven that has already been used for bread and so the temperature is only about 200ºF.The loaves bake for seven hours and the process produces a moist, dense, completely sourdough bread that last well over six months – or so the story goes.The bread is traditionally made in November and it keeps best when stored in wine cellars and hay lofts.”

Now that is the kind of bread I really do love to wrap my brain around and then even my schedule … BUT (ah yes there is that proverbial but) I am just way beyond incredibly grateful to Kelly (A Messy Kitchen) for searching out such a wonderfully accessible alternative. And I’m incredibly grateful to Joe Ortiz in The Villiage Baker for putting this one together. I do enjoy that book. Perhaps one day I can bake the above Faire one boiullie but right now my life is too far out of control to do that.

This bread got me back to baking with my Babes and put butter back on good bread!

I can’t remember when I ever weighted a loaf of bread I bake but I think I need to start.When I looked at this recipe yield of 2 loaves 14 oz each, it gave me considerable pause.

The contrast between weight and volume can be dramatic.Think about those plastic wrapped White Wonder loaves, maybe 90% air and the rest library paste.This does not bake a brick but it does not have that Wonder loaf volume either.

I loved the caraway!And the raisin paste while unique, does add just the right subtle sweetness to this. The original recipe called for measuring the raisins in a tablespoon … that just seems wrong to me. How do you put raisins in a tablespoon to measure them? So I didn’t. But, I did weigh the small handful I put in so that I would know what I used the next time. Starting this in a cold oven requires less anticipatory planning and so worked really well for my totally scatter brain of the moment.

1. To make the porridge starter (bouillie):Mix the honey into the boiling water until dissolved.Pour it over the rye flour and grain in a bowl.Let it soak for a few minutes, then give it a stir to make sure all the flour is moistened.Cover the bowl and set aside overnight in a warm area.

2. For the dough: You’ll note that the original recipe calls to desolve yeast in a little water … I poured the water over the bouillie and whisk the yeast into the flour.Put all of the porridge (bouillie) into a madium bowl or stand mixer and mix in the salt.Crush the caraway seeds with a mortan and pestle until fragrant and broken.Add the raisins and grind into a paste.Stir the last 1 tbsp water into the caraway/raisin paste.Add 2 tsp of the resulting caraway flavoring into the porridge.Slowly add 1½ cups flour, mixing in on low speed or with a plastic dough scraper.Mix in the yeast.Continue adding the remaining flour slowly until the dough is a medium firm consistency.Knead for 5-8 minutes, adding a little more white flour if necessary.The dough will be sticky but should be firm. I used all the flour and then probably used another half cup in kneading.

3. Put the dough in the bowl, cover with a moist towel, and let rise in an unlit oven (or warm place) for 1½ – 2 hours.

4. When the dough has doubled, cut into two pieces.Shape into flat loaves that are 5″ square and 2″ high by flattening and then folding the edges toward the middle and sealing the edges with the heel of the hand.Grease a 9×5½” bread pan and oil one side of each loaf.Place them together in the pan with the oiled sides touching.

5. Cover again with a moist towel and let rise for 30-45 minutes in a cold oven until the dough has crested the edge of the pan by ½-inch.

Funny as it may look, this is a great way to use this pan when a recipe doesn’t fill the pan.

6. Slash the top of each loaf with a little 2″ cut, and brush tops with oil.

7. Set the oven to 450ºF and immediately place the loaves in to bake.Bake in the heating oven for 25 minutes.Reduce heat to 400ºF and bake for 45 minutes longer.They will be quite dark.(My oven runs hot and I pulled mine at 40 minutes.)

8. Cool on a wire rack and slice thinly when bread is completely cooled.

Notes:

There are two things wrong with this bread:

The little chips are the a thin layer of the top crust sliced off. Makes it much easier to slice thin slices of the bread.

1. The crust is really thick, so as I worked my way through the loaf I would cut off just about an inch of the top crust.That allowed me to slice beautifully thin slices.

2. It’s gone in a flash.So fast in fact, I found my self baking it again two days later … there was only two of us eating it.

As dark as this looks, there was no burnt flavor or order found here but the crust is thick.

Half my loaf weighted 428 grams

Don’t miss this bread. It is a delightful rye and really very simple to put together. We enjoyed it with poached eggs, smoked salmon and I’m trying to get the ingredients for a Rubin before this last loaf is gone.

We would love you to bake this great loaf with us and become our Bread Baking Buddy. Here’s how: (I copied this from Lien who copied it from Kelly) Just bake your version of this bread by November 30th and send her a note with your results and a picture or link to your post at eleyana(AT)aol(DOT)com with Buddy Bread in the subject line and she will include you in our buddy round up at the beginning of next month and send you a badge to keep and/or add to your post. You don’t have to have a blog to participate, a picture is fine!

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My ideal for Focaccia comes from walking on the Portofino docks. In fact, Portofino is my ideal for two things, Focaccia and the idyllic port I’d most like to sail into in a small sail boat. On the occasion of my most heavenly Focaccia, we didn’t sail in, we drove the winding roads darkening into a rainy evening. We stopped when we came to two hotels, one was closed for the season, we were the only guests at the other. Our room was on the water, we slept with the doors open to the sound of waves and rain. The next morning we discovered we hadn’t made it to Portofino. We’d stopped just short of Portofino. To get to town we either had to get back in the car and drive a couple miles around the corner OR walk about a mile over the gentle hill across the road and through olive groves where they were netting olives. Which way did we go? The day was brilliant and we covered the town and the hills around. We were walking the docks in early afternoon. We bought a slab of warm from the oven Rosemary garlic focaccia from a bakery and sat down at a dockside wine place and watched the boats sailing. That has always been how I define focaccia, thick and billowy with deep pockets of fruity olive oil and rosemary with the perfect touch of salt.
Now this Focaccia, Cathy’s Focaccia, this is not how I define Focaccia. Cathy’s Focaccia (because you know by now Cathy of BreadExperience is our KOM) is NOT my Portofino Focaccia BUT let me tell you it now defines Glorious Spring Crispy Focaccia for me even if the temp was only 33° when I made this. The babes kept showing this baked with lemons and were raving about a cookbook “The Flavor Bible” and I’m thinking “Nope no more cookbooks until I have a real oven and slice a fresh lemon and put it on bread to bake, and then I’m supposed to eat.” NOT going to happen.

You’ll want to double down on lemon slices, put them close together.

Thanks, but no I won’t be eating my hat, perhaps my words. I will be baking another Thin Crispy Lemon and Asparagus Focaccia, Thank You very much Cathy.

I shaved the ends of the asparagus and cut each stalk in half. Slice the lemons as thin as possible. I only used one. I’ll not hesitate to use part of another next time.

1. *The bread flour I used is closer to a light whole wheat and I also used some sprouted wheat which absorbs more liquid. If using regular white bread flour, the hydration should be closer to 77% – 80%.

2. Poolish:
In a medium bowl, whisk together the bread flour and yeast. Pour in the room temperature water and combine using a wooden spoon. Scrape down the sides of the bowl using a spatula or dough scraper. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest on the counter at room temperature (75 degrees F. /25 degrees C.) for 12 to 14 hours.

3. Final Dough:
The next day, or when ready to mix the final dough, whisk together the flours and yeast in a large bowl. Pour the water and oil over the poolish and mix thoroughly with a wooden spoon or Danish dough whisk to break up the poolish. Add the water gradually, reserving the 25 grams to mix with the salt. I started with about 650 grams (78%), then gradually added more water until the dough reached the consistency I was looking for 725 grams (87%). Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a dough scraper, cover and let it rest (autolyze) for 20 minutes.

4. Uncover and sprinkle the salt over the top of the dough. Pour the remaining 25 grams of water over the salt to dissolve it. Using wet hands, thoroughly incorporate the salt into the dough. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and let it rest for 20 minutes.

5. Sprinkle water on a work surface. Uncover the dough and transfer it to the wet surface. Using wet hands, fold the dough from all sides. Then gently tuck the seams under and place the dough back in the bowl. Using water on the counter and your hands, alleviates the need to oil the bowl or the work surface. Cover the bowl again with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and set the dough aside for the third time to ferment for 20 minutes.

6. Sprinkle water on the work surface again and fold the dough one last time. Tuck the seams under and place it back in the bowl. Cover and set it aside to ferment for 2 hours.

7. An hour before you plan to bake the focaccia, place a baking stone or tiles in the oven and preheat it to 500 degrees F. (260 degrees C.) If you plan to use a pan for steam, place it in the oven at this time.

8. Sprinkle your work surface with water. Transfer the dough to the work surface and divide it into four equal pieces. Depending on the type of flour you use and the hydration, each piece will be approximately 400 grams. Mine were about 410 grams each.

Shape each piece into a round and cover with plastic. Let them bench rest for 15 minutes.

At this point, wrap the dough balls you won’t be baking in oiled plastic, placed them in a plastic bag and put them in the refrigerator to use another day. I froze two. Feel free to make them all at once if you prefer.

9. Lightly oil two half sheets of parchment paper. Place one dough ball on each sheet. Gently press on the dough to degas it and then shape each piece into a flattish round. Cover the rounds with plastic wrap and let them proof for 45 minutes.

Uncover the dough, drizzle olive oil over the top and gently stretch each piece into an oval disk the length of the parchment paper, or to the desired size. I sprinkled the top with sea salt (optional), pepper and place thinly sliced lemons, then laid my asparagus.

I suppose it’s simple caramelization of the lemons but even very thinly sliced they take on the texture of jam and hint of lemon curd in a flavor extravaganza! It is marvelous.

10. Using a baker’s peel or unrimmed baking sheet, transfer the focaccia (on the parchment) to the preheated baking stone. My little Breville oven only goes to 450 but it does have a baking stone (my steel is too large but works on the outside grill).

Bake the focaccia for 10 minutes, or until the loaves are golden brown and crisp around the edges. Remove the parchment paper partway through baking to allow the bottom to firm up. Mine took 25 minutes at 450°. The hotter 500° would have eliminated the center softer crust I’m sure and would have baked much faster which I know produces much better crust.

Repeat with the remaining focaccias.

This focaccia makes a great appetizer or the main meal. For Cathy the flavors of the fennel seed, thyme and lemon paired really well. She and her taste testers really enjoyed the hint of tanginess you get when you bite into a piece with a lemon slice. However, feel free to use the toppings and flavors of your choice.

Cathy (BreadExperience) is our flavor star Kitchen of the Month. Bake this Spring Focaccia recipe above and post it on your blog before the 30th of this month. Please make sure you mention BBB May 2016 in the subject line and link to Cathy’s BBB post in your own blog post. If you don’t have a blog do not hesitate to bake and email Cathy with your name (breadexperience at gmail dot com), a 500px wide image of your bread. Cathy will then send you a BBB badge for this bread that you can then add to your post on your blog. The round up can be expected around the 3nd of June.

You’ll want to double down on lemon slices, put them close together. Trust me you REALLY want to bake this one.

I’ll be baking my 2nd dough ball of Cathy’s Spring Focaccia today, slightly warmer more spring like today in the 60’s. Trust me, try at least one with lemon. I know I’ll be putting many lemons on this again.
And, yes, alright I did buy the book. And No, I still only have the little Breville convection toaster oven.

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You know the kind of post where your best laid plans went packing. That’s actually what has been happening in my kitchen. About all my plans for baking have become plans for packing. The kitchen here is 80% packed. So, while appliances function, tools can be difficult to come by. Last week I wanted to bake with a tube pan …. packed. Makes things challenging. And a bread with starter … stopped me cold.

When I wanted to bake with the Babes last month, the starter eluded me. I forgot to mix it every night for days on end. Probably the most difficult issue was that by the end of the day of packing boxes and stacking them to be able to walk through the kitchen, the bottle of Riesling really begged just to be poured into glasses not into a bowl of dough.

So even though I didn’t bake the bread, I can see from the Babes and Buddies who baked it, this was a wonderful loaf. So I’ve gathered up the Buddies who did bake the bread and they are a truly glorious bunch of Babe Buddies.

In no particular order here they are:

Kelly did a lot better than I did. My starter had stopped, Kelly was able to revive her starter to bake this gorgeous loaf seems to be keeping it going full force with light fluffy pancakes!

Karen seemed to be doing something I’m always doing … she started on the recipe without getting the big picture reading through the recipe before beginning. Fortunately she knew how to slow things down … she also knew that baking this bread in a cast iron Dutch oven would give her a lovely color to her loaf and crisp crust.

Cathy says her loaf has ” a slight blemish from being stuck to the basket.” I say her loaf has individualism and great flavor. How do I know it had great flavor? Because the friend she shared it with liked it enough to keep the entire loaf. Now that’s good flavor.

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I must apologize to Natashya. Living In The Kitchen With Puppies (Natashya ) our most wonderful Kitchen of the Month, gave us a glorious recipe … for white bread and I used almost half white whole wheat and added ground flax seed. Sigh, then when it came time for the kneading … I reached for the whole wheat, really I did. Still, I really like the look, the crumb and for sure the taste. Then when the recipe called for 3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder, well, I haven’t had any of that in my house for maybe 30 years. Since, I had just bought a long stocking of fresh garlic, there was just no way I was going to the store for 3/4 teaspoon granulated garlic or garlic powder. So, I’m really sorry Natashya, I really played with the recipe … oh and oops, I had a really bad senior moment and forgot to add the cheese to the tomato, garlic filling but hey what’s cheese for if not to put between two slices of a loaf and grill it! Oh yes it is a glorious bread. Thank you Natashya for inviting me to play. And thank you King Arthur.

There are those of us who obsess about somethings. Like measurements. I’m not one of those. Especially I’m not one of those when life tries to keep me in sleepless chaos. Amazing how you can be totally exhausted, even falling asleep sitting up but as soon as you get horizontal, the brain leaps into high gear and starts reviewing every thing that’s got you tied to the worry wart and your eyes are wide open all night. So while I can’t be bothered to obsess about measurements, Elizabeth takes care of all that obsessing for me. (Not being one to name names.) This is the kind of recipe I would look at and think “WAY to much yeast.” No slow rise with flavor develop with this one. BUT I’m getting a different picture lately. Ordinarily I’d have been inclined to make it a tablespoon. Since Elizabeth raved about the oven rise and I was using some whole wheat, I went with the 4 teaspoons. I did put it in the fridge for about 20 minutes and let it rise then about an hour and a half.

As to the sugar … I’m at the end of a bag of brown sugar that’s gotten a little dry … so I used a clot (sort of like a big pinch). See how carefully I measure.

Gosh, I’m beginning to feel rather heretical. Normally, I go with the metric measures. I really like just pouring flour from the bag into the bowl on the scale. For some reason known only to the cosmos, I used the cup measures. Go figure.

1) Combine the water, sugar (I used just a pinch), yeast, milk, olive oil, eggs, salt, and flour, and mixed and kneaded by hand, until you’ve made a cohesive, soft dough. By hand, the dough formed a smooth ball. Place the dough in a greased bowl, and turn to grease the top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, about 45 minutes. To roast my garlic and let it cool, I wanted a slightly slower rise. A twenty minute rest in the fridge followed by an hour and a half rise on the counter worked very well.

2) Meanwhile, thoroughly drain the sun-dried tomatoes; lay them on a paper towel to absorb any excess oil. Using kitchen shears, finely chop the tomatoes.

3) Line two baking sheets with parchment. Gently deflate the dough and divide it in half. Roll one piece into a 22″ x 8 1/2″ rectangle. Sprinkle on half the garlic, cheese, basil, and tomatoes.

4. 4) Starting with one long edge, roll the dough into a log the long way. Pinch the edges to seal.

5) Place the log seam-side down on a baking sheet. Using kitchen shears, start 1/2″ from one end and cut the log lengthwise down the center about 1″ deep, to within 1/2″ of the other end.

6) Keeping the cut side up, form an “S” shape. Tuck both ends under the center of the “S” to form a “figure 8”; pinch the ends together to seal. Cover and let rise in a warm place until double, 45 to 60 minutes.

7) For the second loaf, I played with a different shape. Filled and rolled the same way but cut the ends became the center buds and the log cut into triangles.

8) While the loaves are rising, preheat the oven to 350°F.9) Bake the first loaf for 35 to 40 minutes. Tent the loaf with foil after 15 to 20 minutes to prevent over-browning. Bake the remaining loaf.10) Remove loaves from their pans; cook on racks. Store any leftovers well-wrapped, at room temperature.Because I forgot the cheese in the filling, I tried several slices on the grill … OH MY OH MY what a glorious cheese sandwich.Want to try this bread with us? You know you do! If you wanna give this one a bake too, you’re all very welcome to bake along as our Bread Baking Buddy. Bake, tell us what your thoughts are about it, blog and send it all to Living In The Kitchen With Puppies (Natashya ). Here’s the scoop from Natashya: I invited the Bread Baking Babes to have fun with this bread, and all Buddies and home bakers are welcome to join in. If you would like to bake this delicious bread – bake it up, blog it, and let us know how you liked the experience. Send me a link by April 26th, and a medium-sized photo if I can’t get one from your site, to kitchenpuppies AT gmail DOT com – I’ll put up a round-up on the 27th. Send an e-mail with Buddy for Tomato Basil & Garlic Filled Pane Bianco. Really, you’ll enjoy this even if you don’t use five heads of garlic.